Follow-up: Lawyers Say ICE Agent Fired Into NY Man's Car Without Warning; Bullet Still Lodged in His Neck
Lawyers for Oscar Belgal, the man wounded by immigration officers in Manhattan on October 8, filed a habeas petition in Brooklyn federal court on Wednesday seeking his release, the Associated Press reported. The filing says an unidentified masked man ran up to Belgal's car with a gun drawn, smashed a window and fired several shots into the vehicle while Belgal's 5-year-old son sat in the back seat.
According to the petition, Belgal had picked up his son from school and was stopped in front of a fire hydrant looking for parking when the encounter began. A bullet struck his neck and remains lodged there; the filing says the left side of his face is numb, his hearing in his left ear is impaired, and he is being held in a segregated unit at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn with ibuprofen for pain. The lawyers also contend agents arrested him without a warrant. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Hector Gonzalez temporarily barred the government from deporting Belgal or transferring him outside the Southern or Eastern Districts of New York or the District of New Jersey, and asked the government to explain why mandatory detention is warranted. ICE did not immediately comment on the filing.
The Department of Homeland Security gives a different account. DHS officials have said officers opened fire only after Belgal drove into two government vehicles and accelerated toward other officers, and have cited a criminal record and alleged gang associations; Belgal denies gang involvement, and his attorneys say ICE has provided no evidence of it. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said at a news conference last Friday that officers did not know a child was in the car when they fired, and criticized New York's sanctuary policies. Mayor Zohran Mamdani condemned ICE at the scene and said he had called President Trump seeking Belgal's release without success.
Surveillance footage released by the NYPD shows a man in a red hat running up to the car and shattering the driver's window, but does not conclusively resolve how the shooting unfolded. The competing accounts are now before the court, and GSM will follow further developments.
(Source: Associated Press reporting, October 14, and ABC News reporting; each side's account is attributed, and the facts remain subject to court proceedings.)
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：美国移民与海关执法局（ICE）探员执行车辆拦查勤务（资料图，非本案事发画面）。图片来源：U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement，美国政府作品，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons
- 2026-10-08ICE Agent Shoots Immigrant in the Bronx With 5-Year-Old in Car; Governor and Mayor Condemn Shooting
- 2026-10-08ICE Agent Shoots 28-Year-Old in the Neck During Bronx Arrest Attempt; Child in Back Seat Unharmed
- 2026-10-10ICE Agent Shoots Man During Bronx-Area Arrest as His 5-Year-Old Sat in the Back Seat; Mayor and DHS Trade Blame as Protests Reach a Third Day
- 2026-10-15Follow-up: Lawyers Say ICE Agent Fired Into NY Man's Car Without Warning; Bullet Still Lodged in His NeckThis story
- 2026-10-15Follow-Up: New York Man Shot by ICE Appears Before Immigration Judge by Video; Lawyers Say He Is Held in Solitary and Still Needs Surgery to Remove Bullet in Neck
- 2026-10-16Follow-Up: Mayor Mamdani and More Than 100 Elected Officials Write to 1,000-Plus NYC Parking Lot Owners, Urging Them Not to Let ICE Stage Operations There
